Zombie Patrol
By Lucas Millican
PAGE 1
I want Panel 1 and 2 side by side. Panel 1 should be long and fill about 2/3 of the page horizontally. Panel 2 can be small and fit on the edge of the page.
Panel 3 and 4 should be side by side, and approximately equal in size.
Panels 5, 6, and 7 will be on the third row of the page.
PANEL 1 –
CAPTION: The Louisiana Bayou
The story opens with a wide-shot of the Volunteer ZOMBIE PATROL Headquarters. The HQ is a rickety building in disrepair in the Louisiana Bayou. The building has overgrown foliage around it and loose shingles and boards on the structure itself.
PANEL 2 –
Close-up shot of a wooden sign that reads “Volunteer Zombie Patrol.” The paint is faded and the sign is in poor condition.
PANEL 3 –
There is a HAMMOCK hung up on the porch on the side of the building with a person sleeping in it.
PANEL 4 —
CAPTION: Ezekiel Radcliffe – Volunteer Zombie Fighter. Melee Specialist.
Close-up of our hero, Ezekiel Radcliffe, sleeping in the hammock with his wide-brimmed leather hat pulled over his face. He is shirtless and there is a brown trench-coat draped over the edge of the porch.
PANEL 5 —
Interior HQ. It is a simple room with a red light-bulb that is flashing on the back wall. Above the light is a sign that reads “Zombie Alert.”
PANEL 6 –
We see a wooden table with a small machine on it that resembles a seismometer. I have named this machine the ZOMBIEGRAPH. The ZombieGraph is printing out a message which we can read. The message says “3.9 Magnitude Alert.” I would like to see the name “ZombieGraph” printed on the machine. This is a name brand product.
PANEL 7 —
Exterior HQ. Ezekiel is awakened by the alarm. He mutters “Aw hell…” as he gets up.
PAGE 2
FORMATTING:
Panel 1 and 2 are side by side. These don’t need to be very large.
Panel 3 and 4 are nearly identical. They are conversation frames.
Panel 5 should be a big open shot and take up a large part of the bottom of the page.
PANEL 1 –
Close-up shot of Ezekiel strapping two very large knives on his legs.
PANEL 2 –
Ezekiel is walking to the door of the HQ. He is in the process of putting on his trench-coat. He has one arm raised and is slipping his other arm into the coat.
PANEL 3 —
Interior HQ : There is a large black man standing at the table with his back to us. On his back is a very large machine gun strapped on one direction, and a shotgun strapped the other direction. Over this man’s head is a caption box which reads:
CAPTION: Randal Washington – Volunteer Zombie Fighter. Munitions Expert.
EZEKIEL, standing in the open doorway says, “What’s the situation?”
PANEL 4 —
RANDAL turns around and replies “There’s a small zombie uprising in the western strands. Eleanor is out on patrol and is already en route to the location.”
EZEKIEL: “Ok. Let’s load up the boat and get going.”
PANEL 5 –
Exterior HQ: Ezekiel and Randal are on a swamp boat in poor condition. They race off into the bayou. Open shot of the terrain. Lots of water and trees can be seen.
PAGE 3
PANEL 1 –
CAPTION: The Western Strands
Exterior Strands: We see a wide-shot of a strand of trees surrounded by water. There is a swamp boat parked here with a woman on it shooting a mounted Gatling Gun into a pack of zombies.
PANEL 2 –
Close-up of zombies. These zombies are very simple. They have ratty, non-descript clothing and expressionless faces. Their eyes are black and empty.
PANEL 3 –
CAPTION: Eleanor Lancaster – Volunteer Zombie Fighter. Gatling Gun.
Close-up of Eleanor standing at her mounted gun.
ELEANOR: “What took you so long? I’ve already killed 15.”
PANEL 4 –
All 3 characters are in this panel. Eleanor is standing on her boat. Ezekiel and Randal are both on a patch of land nearby.
EZEKIEL: “I’ve got left.”
RANDAL: “I’ll flank right. Most kills gets a free dinner on the losers.”
ELEANOR: “Looks like you guys will be buying me dinner.” She has a cocky smirk on her face.
PANEL 5 –
Ezekiel draws both of his knives and engages the zombies.
PANEL 6 –
Close-up of Ezekiel slashing at a zombie with one of his knives. We only need to see his arm and the knife hitting a zombie.
PANEL 7 –
Close-up of Randal shooting his machine gun. The bullets spray into a pack of several zombies. Only Randal’s arms and the gun are necessary. This is a quick action shot.
PAGE 4
PANEL 1 –
This is a similar shot to panel 6 on the previous page. Ezekiel is stabbing a zombie.
EZEKIEL: Four!
SATELLITE CAPTION: (I want the satellite to talk in a different colored caption box so it is easily distinguishable). Meta-human activity detected. Assessing threat…”
PANEL 2 –
This panel is similar to panel 7 on the previous page. Randal continues to shoot his gun. A bullet strikes a zombie square in the forehead.
RANDAL: Seven!
SATELLITE CAPTION: Threat located.
PANEL 3 –
Eleanor is shooting her Gatling Gun into more zombies. There are several corpses on the ground. This is another fast action shot and we do not need to see her full body. Just the barrels of the gun spinning and shooting and some dead zombies.
ELEANOR: Twenty one!
SATELLITE CAPTION: Threat determined to be beyond the means of local authorities…
PANEL 4 –
CAPTION: Elsewhere in the Bayou
Exterior Swamp: We see a cave entrance, partially concealed by surrounding trees and brush.
PANEL 5 —
Interior Cave. Our villain is sitting cross legged on the floor in the center of some arcane runes. His eyes are closed. There are lit candles on the floor and around perimeter of the room in long thin candelabras. A caption over his head reads:
CAPTION: Jambo – Voodoo Master. Dark Magic.
PANEL 6 —
Jambo stands and raises his staff, which has a skull on top of it.
JAMBO: Arise soldiers. It is time to claim this land as our own.
PANEL 7
CAPTION: Zombie Patrol HQ
Interior HQ. The ZombieGraph prints a new message which reads “5.6 Magnitude Alert.”
PAGE 5
FORMATTING:
Panel 1 should be good sized. I want to give the reader a clear understanding of what is happening.
Panels 2, 3, and 4 should be small and simple.
Panels 5, 6, and 7 should also be small and stacked directly under the above 3.
Panels 8, 9, and 10 are also small and stacked underneath. The idea is that the situation gets bad very quickly.
PANEL 1 –
CAPTION: The Western Strands
New zombies begin to rise out of the ground and from the nearby strand of trees. These zombies are wearing CONFEDERATE SOLDIER uniforms from the Civil War. They have red bloodshot eyes. Some of these zombies are holding old fashioned rifles.
PANEL 2 –
One of the zombies raises his rifle and fires.
PANEL 3 —
Close-up of the bullet flying through the air.
PANEL 4 –
The bullet tags Eleanor and she goes down hard.
PANEL 5 –
EZEKIEL “Eleanor NO!”
He throws one of his knives.
PANEL 6 –
The knife is flying through the air. I’d like to see some sort of woosh effect to indicate motion.
PANEL 7 –
The knife buries into the forehead of the confederate zombie.
PANEL 8 —
Close-up of Randal’s gun again. His gun starts wheezing because he is out of ammo. It makes an empty “CLICK CLICK CLICK” sound.
PANEL 9 –
RANDAL: “I think we’re in trouble!”
He pulls the shotgun off his back.
PANEL 10 –
EZEKIEL: Behind you!
He throws his other knife into the back of a zombie that was behind Randal.
PAGE 6
PANEL 1 –
CAPTION: Zombie Patrol HQ
Interior HQ. The ZombieGraph has printed a new message which reads “Magnitude 7.3 alert”
PANEL 2 –
CAPTION: The Western Strand
Randal is shooting his shotgun into an increasingly large pack of Confederate Zombies.
PANEL 3 –
Ezekiel is surrounded by zombies. He is holding up his fists in defiance.
SATELLITE CAPTION: Immediate intervention necessary. Activating civilian…
PANEL 4 –
A beam of light comes from the sky and centers on Ezekiel.
SATELLITE CAPTION(s): Ezekiel Radcliffe. You have been selected for Sentry Duty. I am Satellite SAM-27 and I will be assisting you. You will be granted temporary physical strength and agility enhancements and access to other special powers of your choosing.
Note: I do not want the above caption to read as one giant paragraph. I would like for it to be broken into several smaller caption boxes.
PANEL 5 –
Close-up of Ezekiel. He is still surrounded by zombies.
SATELLITE CAPTION: “What other powers do you require?”
Ezekiel: “I could use some new knives.”
PANEL 6 –
SATELLITE CAPTION: Granted.
Two huge glowing knives appear in his hands. He has a huge grin on his face.
PAGE 7
PANEL 1 –
Ezekiel brandishes his new glowing knives. I want to see some sort of flourish or twirl of the knives here. Ezekiel knows he has just become a badass and I want the panel to show it.
EZEKIEL: Oh hell yes.
PANEL 2 –
EZEKIEL: “Randal! I just got activated for Sentry Duty. Get back to the boat and get Eleanor out of here. I can handle this on my own.”
PANEL 3 —
Randal jumps onto Eleanor’s boat and grabs the steering wheel.
PANEL 4 –
Randal drives off with one last glance over his shoulder.
PANEL 5 —
Ezekiel throws out several glowing knives in rapid succession. Each time he throws a knife, a new one instantly appears in his hands. If you want to use multiple small panels of action to convey this idea, go ahead. The main point here is that Ezekiel has just become a zombie killing machine.
PANEL 6 —
A zombie raises a rifle and fires at Ezekiel.
PANEL 7 –
Ezekiel ducks and spins and throws a knife all in one fluid motion.
PANEL 8 —
The knife cuts the rifle in half.
EZEKIEL: That’ll teach you to bring a gun to a knife fight.
PAGE 8
PANEL 1 –
Ezekiel: SAM where are these zombies coming from?
SATELLITE CAPTION: There is a cave near your location. Inside the cave is a man who wields powerful dark magics.
PANEL 2 –
Ezekiel: All right. I’ll head over there and cut this off at its source.
PANEL 3 —
Ezekiel is standing on the remaining swamp boat. He is holding the steering wheel.
EZEKIEL: SAM can you make this thing go faster?
SATELLITE CAPTION: I am incapable of enhancing non-living things.
SATELLITE CAPTION: Prepare for relocation.
PANEL 4 –
The image is the same as above, only this time Ezekiel is no longer on the swamp boat. Instead, all we see is a residual glowing light where he was standing.
PAGE 9
PANEL 1 –
Ezekiel reappears at the cave entrance with a visual POP. His face has a surprised expression on it.
PANEL 2 –
CAPTION: Inside the cave…
Interior Cave: Jambo is sitting cross legged in the middle of the runes. His eyes are closed.
PANEL 3 –
Jambo opens his eyes. He is not happy.
Ezekiel’s shadowy silhouette can be seen on the cave wall in the candle-light.
JAMBO: Trespasser!
PANEL 4 –
Jambo stands as Ezekiel enters the cave room.
JAMBO: Leave now. This is my land.
EZEKIEL: You shot Eleanor. I’ll trespass anywhere I want.
PANEL 5 —
Jambo raises his arms and hurls a big fireball at Ezekiel.
PANEL 6 –
Ezekiel raises both glowing knives and blocks the fireball with the blades.
EZEKIEL: Is that all you’ve got?
PANEL 7 —
Ezekiel throws both knives and pins Jambo’s arms to the cave wall.
PANEL 8 —
Ezekiel snaps Jambo’s staff over his knee.
EZEKIEL: Your magic is broken.
PAGE 10
PANEL 1 –
CAPTION: The Western Strand
Exterior Strand. The zombies begin to fall and crumble.
PANEL 2 –
Similar to the above panel. The zombies are now lifeless heaps on the ground and in the water.
PANEL 3 –
CAPTION: The Cave
Interior Cave. Jambo is unconscious and bound by glowing ropes.
PANEL 4 —
EZEKIEL: SAM can you get me out of here?
SATELLITE CAPTION: Relocating…
PANEL 5 –
Interior HQ —
Randal is bandaging a wounded Eleanor. Her eyes are closed and her shoulder is bloodied where she took the bullet.
PANEL 6 –
Ezekiel appears with another POP and startles Randal and Eleanor.
PANEL 7 –
ELEANOR: You cheated. Those kills don’t count. You still owe me dinner.
END